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Ukraine's Deftifying Art art rescuers by Charlotte Higgins.

In early March, 2022,

in early March 2022, when his country seemed in danger of falling to the Russians,

it occurred to Leonid Maruschak, a historian by training, to call the director of a museum in eastern Ukraine to check that a collection

of 20th century studio pottery was safe.

He had loved the modernist works by artist Natalia Maximchenko since he'd encounter them almost a decade earlier.

There were vessels covered with bold abstract glazes in purple, scarlet in yellow, exuberant

figurines of musicians and dances with swirling skirts, dishes

painted with birds in flight.

The collection was a radiant highlight of the local history museum in Slaviansk, the ceramic The Saramisis' home town.

It was remarkable that they were in this small museum at all.

Loshi was born in Ukraine in 1914 and studied in Kharkyev, Maximchenkoo had lived the rest of

her life in Russia.

...